1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to fishing equipment, and more particularly to unattended leech traps for the capture of live leeches.
2. Description of Related Art
Historically, bait harvesters trapped leeches using coffee cans, burlap sacks, aluminum tubes, or metal folding traps. The harvester would bait one of these traps with frozen fish parts or a piece of liver from a chicken, cow, or pig. A typical technique was to place the baited trap in the water in the early evening, check the trap in the early morning, and rotate the traps between several locations known to produce leeches.
Prior art leech traps have the disadvantage that they corrode or degrade due to the long time they spend underwater. Burlap or other sacks tend to break down over time under water. Metal traps, such as coffee cans or aluminum tubular or folding traps rust or corrode from contact with water. A further disadvantage of prior art leech traps is that it is relatively difficult to remove the trapped leeches from the traps. Leeches readily adhere to cloth sacks. When a metal trap is new, leeches do not readily adhere to the sides or bottom of the trap, however as the trap corrodes the leeches adhere more and more tightly to the surface of the trap.
Known prior art leech traps include U.S. Des. Pat. No. 420,417 to Daniels. The Daniels leech trap structure includes a substantially cylindrical leech trap enclosure perforated by numerous holes. The Daniels leech trap does not disclose a trap having larger holes in the upper portion and smaller holes in the lower portion, nor does it disclose a weighted lower portion to ensure proper orientation during use. The Daniels leech trap also does not disclose or suggest the use of a location marking float to allow unattended use on shore or from a boat.